Family Should Apologize for Forcing United Airlines Diversion

The trending story of a family thrown off a United Airlines flight from Houston to Portland beckons us to consider how airlines should compassionately and effectively accommodate disabled travelers while balancing concerns of safety and the comfort of other passengers.

The story has permeated throughout all modes of media over the last several days, but for those living under a rock, here is a brief summary:

Beegle family of four flying from Orlando to Portland, Oregon via Houston in economy class on United

Daughter, Juliette, 15 years old, suffers from autism and has trouble flying

Juliette refused to eat during Houston layover and became hungry onboard IAH-PDX flight

Donna, mother, purchased a hot chicken sandwich from the buy-on-board menu but Juliette refused to eat that, claiming it was lukewarm

Donna asked FA if she could purchase food from first class, explaining that her daughter needed a hot meal but FA refuses

Juliette becomes disruptive, loudly crying and screaming from her seat

Donna implores the FA to bring her a first class meal, saying she has Plat status with United

Juliette continues to be disruptive

Donna finally warns FA that if Juliette does not get food she will have a “meltdown” and may “scratch” someone

FA, either providing a crew meal or an uneaten first class meal, brings a hot meal back to Juliette and she clams down

Minutes later, captain announces a diversion to Salt Lake City “due to a passenger in the back having issues.”

Beegle family unaware at this point captain is referring to them

In SLC, police escort Beegle family off plane; they are rebooked on Delta to PDX at United’s expense

Here is a YouTube video of the incident:

Although my gut reaction was to side with United immediately, let’s tease out the controversy a bit more. I try to be an empathetic person and do want to give the Beegles as much benefit of the doubt as possible. You can read Donna’s account here.

I take Beegle at her word when she said she tried to feed Juliette in Houston and I cannot blame a mother for trying to protect her daughter from meltdown. Thus, though asking for a first class meal seems tawdry, I will not hold that against her. Still a bit strange that she did not first ask to reheat the purchased chicken sandwich.

Her words describing the captain struck a chord with me—

The officer told us “The captain is not comfortable flying to Portland with your daughter on the plane. You have to leave the plane.” The captain had never seen Juliette nor had he come out of the front cabin.

A few minutes later a Global Services rep came onboard and asked to have a word with me, motioning for me to follow him. As I walked up front, I noticed the FA who had reprimanded me earlier ducked into the front galley and out of sight.

He was direct—”The captain is not comfortable with you on this flight. You’ll need to gather your things and we’ll find another way to get you to Istanbul.” I was flabbergasted.

That makes me immediately sympathetic to Beegles, for I still hold the captain of my ill-fated IST flight in contempt for delegating in-flight safety to a lying FA. Here too, it appears the Captain never actually spoke to the family or met Juliette.

But that is where the similarities end in our two stories. Beegle crossed a line when she threatened the safety of the flight and those passengers around her if she did not get her way.

True, the hot food did seem to diffuse the situation, as all reports indicate Juliette was sitting quietly watching the movie as the plane descended into SLC and even as police entered the aircraft to escort her off, but imagine the following—say the FAs had ignored the threat and gone back to galley to gab. Suddenly, Juliette attacks another passenger, scratching him and drawing blood.

Suddenly, instead of a theoretical lawsuit from the Beegles that may well be dismissed, United is looking at a serious lawsuit from a passenger claiming United ignored a direct threat from a passenger. FAs are condemned for being derelict in their duty and United receives and even harsher press criticism than it is experiencing in the aftermath of this incident.

This was a situation in which there was no ideal solution – just two bad alternatives and I support the United flight crew in this case for ultimately deciding that Juliette was a ticking time bomb and that a diversion better protected all those in the zone of danger from peril.

Had it been me, I think I would have offered two options – duct tape Juliette to her seat or divert. Good one Matthew! Can you imagine the press – “United Airlines Duct Tapes Autistic Teenage Girl to Her Seat”?

Bottom line, this was a no-win situation and the flight crew made the right call. Threats of this nature are simply unacceptable.

The Beegle family is suing and Donna claims that the object is not a handsome out-of-court settlement but for United flight crews to be properly trained on how to handle autistic passengers. These children are precious and for the most part we cannot blame them for acting the way they do. That is indeed what makes this situation so difficult.

We need to hear from experts as to whether food does avert meltdowns or just delays them – or perhaps there is no correlation at all. In any case, UA flight crews should be trained on how to handle special-needs passengers with dignity and compassion (I think a lot of them already do a great job of that) but that is a separate matter from how UA crews should respond to threats.

As easy as it is to condemn United here, I think the oft-maligned carrier made the right call in this difficult situation.

About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he
travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120
countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry
and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York
Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News,
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying
international relations, American government, and later obtaining a
law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel
industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in
the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House.
His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline
industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and
detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on
penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a
highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the
effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles.
Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of
points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the
direction and coordination of company travel.

12 Comments

It is hard to tell how much bad behavior is today excused on the grounds that it is caused by an illness but this story is emblematic. People don’t judge us by our intentions but by our actions and they don’t judge parents by their child’s diagnosis but by their children’s behavior. If your kid is sick, well you know what? Stay home or drive. Sorry but an airline cabin is not supposed to look sound or feel like a hospital emergency room.

All airlines accept special instructions prior to flights. What I want to know is whether this family alerted United regarding the requirement of a hot meal in preparation. Seems like a trigger for this child so all resources should have been leveraged.

Have you ever interacted with children on the spectrum? Beegle wasn’t making threats to anyone’s safety, she was merely warning the FA’s what may happen if her daughter wasn’t accommodated. Autistic children can’t help their reactions and neither can their parents. I can totally understand why the captain decided to divert the flight, but the Beegles have nothing to apologize for.

I believe the flight attendant she have better training with people with disabilities. It is not surprising to me that these aging flight attendants have no clue how to be supporting with people with disabilities. They went to school when people with disabilities were in separate classrooms and they never had to work with them.

I know they have a difficult job with anxious and rude people, however, they are very inflexible and sometimes just very cold to unusual circumstances. They would do well with some training nurses and teachers have in order to meet the special needs of the disabled.

I’m of two minds on this one. My cousin’s son is autistic, at the severe end of the spectrum, and will on occasion throw tantrums and become uncontrollable for seemingly no reason. I strongly hesitate to give flight crews carte blanche to throw off passengers with special needs under the guise that they are “threatening”, especially where the passenger suffers from a condition where they and/or their caretaker have little control over the behavior. The question I have is, did the family notify United in advance that they were traveling with a child with special needs? Did they request special accommodations in advance, such as access to a hot meal? From my experience, the airlines are usually reasonable with such requests as long as they are notified properly in advance.

Also, without actually being there, I have to wonder if the family actually voiced a “threat” to surrounding passengers. It’s possible they were being obnoxious. It’s also possible they were simply informing the crew of the behavior that was possible if their daughter didn’t receive a meal quickly.

I understand that special needs people might need to travel, however, whose responsibility is it to control their behavior on a plane? Flight Attendants have enough to do these days when planes are normally full. As to the need for further training on autistic people…that is ludicrous at best. How many special needs types do they need to be trained in over and above all of the necessary safety training? As to why the Captain didn’t talk to the family….did it occur to anyone that he is supposed to be on the flight deck? Any threat in a crowded airliner must be taken seriously and handled in an appropriate manner. I feel United made the right decision.

No sympathy for the family. Knowing this child is prone to tantrums and the like, they should have sedated her before the flight not left her in a state likely to impact upon other passengers. Or provided for some form of restraint in the case of such tantrums. UA crew did what they should have to provide safety to the other 100+ passengers. BTW who’s the guy in the undershirt who’s the first to leave the plane?

Seriously I have zero sympathy for this family. First IMHO and all due respect to people living with kids “diagnosed” with Autism, it’s bunk. Had I grown up in the 80’s chances are I would have been diagnosed with ADHD. Instead I just got my rear end smacked here and there to keep me in line. These people are not entitled to make everyone else’s flight miserable or awkward. Period. Flying is not a constitutional right. The new generation of everyone wins and everyone gets a ribbon are now the ones having kids and it’s going to get worse. Mark my words. I salute the Captain for making the decision to divert and boot them. Maybe they should try NetJets or Greyhound next time.

Probably the most reasonable and balanced take I’ve read on the situation. You are correct in that the crew had to choose between a suite of bad options. I bet nobody here who’s commenting, including myself, has ever been in a similar position.

I have a disabled son. One of the realities of raising a child with a disability is it does put limits on what you can and can’t do. I’m really sorry but if your child can’t fly without a good chance of a violent meltdown, then your child can’t fly, and you have to live with that.

As far as the family apologizing, because the US is such a litigious society, nobody in these situations ever apologizes, as it can be construed as an admission of guilt. Hence you never got an apology from United, Matthew, and you never will.